The advantage of dual boot is that you can have multiple operating systems on one computer and if one fails you can always start second system and save your data. Since I already have Windows 7 installed on this computer (VirtualBox) my second system will be Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce. The first step is to create a partition for Linux.

1. Open the Start Menu and type “DISKMGMT.MSC” and press enter.

2. Right click on (C:) partition and select “Shrink Volume…”

3. Enter the size of the new partition and press “Shrink”. 30 GB (30000 mb) of free space will be enough for Linux but you can make the larger partition if you want.

Partition is created.

4. Restart your computer and press Del or F2 or F12 (depend on your computer’s mainboard) to enter the system BIOS and chose BOOT FROM CD/DVD, save the configuration and exit BIOS.
5. Insert Linux Mint 17.1 into your DVD drive.

6. Press enter key on “Start Linux Mint”.

7. Double click “Install Linux Mint” icon.

8. Choose installation language and press “Continue”.

9. Click “Continue”.

10. Select “Something else” and press “Continue”.

11. Mark “free space 31458 mb” and press “+” in down left corner to create Linux partition’s.

12. Create a swap partition of 4 GB shown in the image above and press “OK”.

13. Press “+” in down left corner and create file system partition shown in the image above and press “OK”.

14. Press “Install Now”.

15. Press “Continue”.

16. Choose your location and press “Continue”.

17. Choose your keyboard layout and press “Continue”.

18. Fill out the required fields and press “Continue”

19. Wait a few minutes until the installation is complete.

20. Press “Restart Now” button and remove Linux Mint installation disc from DVD rom.

21. When you reboot you will see a menu where you can choose to start Linux (first option) or Windows (fifth option). Choose the first option and press enter.
The next step is to upgrade the system.

22. Open Menu, type “update” and press enter.

23. Click “Install Updates”.

24. Enter your password and press “Authenticate”

25. Update Manager will automatically download the package files and install it.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Linux Mint on your computer

The post Linux Mint 17 installation tutorial – dual boot with Windows 7 appeared first on ConfigOS.

7. Create several partitions by clicking the New button and entering a size for each partition.When you’re finished select the partition you want to install Windows to and click the Next button. Windows will install to that partition. The space on the other partition will be available as its own separate drive letter in Windows. In this tutorial I chose to use entire hard disk without other partition’s but my recommendation is to create two partition’s:
– Windows partition (c:) size: 70 – 100 GB.
– Back up partition (D:) size:  depending upon the free space of your hard disk that left.

8. Select the partition you want to install Windows to and click the Next button.

9. Wait for Installing Windows to progress. Your computer might be restarted during the process.
Depending on your hardware, this can take some time (15 – 40 min).

10. Type you’re a user account and computer name. After click Next.

11. Type a password for your account, you can also type a password hint to help in case of forgetting the password in the future, and click Next.

12. Type in activation code or key for your license in Product key box if you have any. Click Next.

13. Choose how to protect your Windows. Here we choose Use recommended settings.

14.  Set up your Time zone and click Next.

15.  Choose an option from 3 choices: Public Network, Work Network, Home Network. Choose Home Network for using Internet at home.

     16. You should already have a CD/DVD’s with driver’s that came with the computer/laptop, or with the mainboard/graphic card and other hardware in your PC so insert it in DVD drive and run all driver installation’s.

17. Now we are going to update OS. Click “Start” button in left corner + All programs

18. Click Windows Update

19. Click Check for updates

20.  Click Install updates

21. And that’s it  After all updates been installed you need to restart pc and Windows installation is finished.

The post Windows 7 installation guide step by step appeared first on ConfigOS.

1. Open Mint menu, type “driver” and press enter.

2. Type your password and click “OK”.

3. Select the driver and click Apply.

It would then download the necessary packages for the selected driver, install it and configure it.

If you have ATI graphics card then will ATI driver appear in Driver Manager.

Restart your PC.

The post Linux Mint 17.1 installing graphics cards drivers appeared first on ConfigOS.

Press “Start” + right click on “Computer” + click “Properties”.

Click on “Device manager”.

Right click on unrecognized device + Click on “Update Driver Software”.

Click on “Browse my computer for drivers software”.

Click on “Browse”

and locate your driver.

 Once it’s done simply click Next and Windows 7 will start installing the driver.

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